slf4j 2.x has been released over 2 years.
Among others, it added nice features that makes structure logging easier https://www.slf4j.org/manual.html#fluent

Also, logback 1.2.x versions (latest compatible with slf4j 1.x) are marked as unmaintained now (https://logback.qos.ch/news.html)

dep upgrade errors related to this: #1235 (comment)